worst thing for our feet was the walking or travelling onthe dry burning sands, within the country, so we provided ourselves witha sort of shoes, made of the skins of wild beasts, with the hair inward,and being dried in the sun, the outsides were thick and hard, and wouldlast a great while. In short, as I called them, so I think the term veryproper still, we made us gloves for our feet, and we found them veryconvenient and very comfortable.
We conversed with some of the natives of the country, who were friendlyenough. What tongue they spoke I do not yet pretend to know. Wetalked as far as we could make them understand us, not only about ourprovisions, but also about our undertaking, and asked them what countrylay that way, pointing west with our hands. They told us but little toour purpose, only we thought, by all their discourse, that there werepeople to be found, of one sort or other, everywhere; that there weremany great rivers, many lions and tigers, elephants, and furious wildcats (which in the end we found to be civet cats), and the like.
When we asked them if any one had ever travelled that way, they toldus yes, some had gone to where the sun sleeps, meaning to the west, butthey could not tell us who they were. When we asked for some to guideus, they shrunk up their shoulders as Frenchmen do when they are afraidto undertake a thing. When we asked them about the lions and wildcreatures, they laughed, and let us know that they would do us no hurt,and directed us to a good way indeed to deal with them, and that was tomake some fire, which would always fright them away; and so indeed wefound it.
Upon these encouragements we resolved upon our journey, and manyconsiderations put us upon it, which, had the thing itself beenpracticable, we were not so much to blame for as it might otherwise besupposed; I will name some of them, not to make the account too tedious.
First, we were perfectly destitute of means to work about our owndeliverance any other way; we were on shore in a place perfectly remotefrom all European navigation; so that we could never think of beingrelieved, and fetched off by any of our own countrymen in that part ofthe world. Secondly, if we had adventured to have sailed on along thecoast of Mozambique, and the desolate shores of Africa to the north,till we came to the Red Sea, all we could hope for there was to be takenby the Arabs, and be sold for slaves to the Turks, which to all of uswas little better than death. We could not build anything of a vesselthat would carry us over the great Arabian Sea to India, nor could wereach the Cape de Bona Speranza, the winds being too variable, and thesea in that latitude too tempestuous; but we all knew, if we could crossthis continent of land, we might reach some of the great rivers that runinto the Atlantic Ocean; and that, on the banks of any of those rivers,we might there build us canoes which would carry us down, if it werethousands of miles, so that we could want nothing but food, of which wewere assured we might kill sufficient with our guns; and to add to thesatisfaction of our deliverance, we concluded we might, every one ofus, get a quantity of gold, which, if we came safe, would infinitelyrecompense us for our toil.
I cannot say that in all our consultations I ever began to enter intothe weight and merit of any enterprise we went upon till now. My viewbefore was, as I thought, very good, viz., that we should get into theArabian Gulf, or the mouth of the Red Sea; and waiting for some vesselpassing or repassing there, of which there is plenty, have seized uponthe first we came at by force, and not only have enriched ourselves withher cargo, but have carried ourselves to what part of the world we hadpleased; but when they came to talk to me of a march of 2000 or 3000miles on foot, of wandering in deserts among lions and tigers, I confessmy blood ran chill, and I used all the arguments I could to persuadethem against it.
But they were all positive, and I might as well have held my tongue; soI submitted, and told them I would keep to our first law, to be governedby the majority, and we resolved upon our journey. The first thing wedid was to take an observation, and see whereabouts in the world wewere, which we did, and found we were in the latitude of 12 degrees 35minutes south of the line. The next thing was to look on the charts, andsee the coast of the country we aimed at, which we found to be from 8 to11 degrees south latitude, if we went for the coast of Angola, or in 12to 29 degrees north latitude, if we made for the river Niger, and thecoast of Guinea.
Our aim was for the coast of Angola, which, by the charts we had, lyingvery near the same latitude we were then in, our course thither was duewest; and as we were assured we should meet with rivers, we doubted notbut that by their help we might ease our journey, especially if we couldfind means to cross the great lake, or inland sea, which the nativescall Coalmucoa, out of which it is said the river Nile has its sourceor beginning; but we reckoned without our host, as you will see in thesequel of our story.
The next thing we had to consider was, how to carry our baggage, whichwe were first of all determined not to travel without; neither indeedwas it possible for us to do so, for even our ammunition, which wasabsolutely necessary to us, and on which our subsistence, I mean forfood, as well as our safety, and particularly our defence against wildbeasts and wild men, depended,--I say, even our ammunition was a loadtoo heavy for us to carry in a country where the heat was such that weshould be load enough for ourselves.
We inquired in the country, and found there was no beast of burthenknown among them, that is to say, neither horses or mules, or asses,camels, or dromedaries; the only creature they had was a kind ofbuffalo, or tame bull, such a one as we had killed; and that some ofthese they had brought so to their hand, that they taught them to go andcome with their voices, as they called them to them, or sent them fromthem; that they made them carry burthens; and particularly that theywould swim over rivers and lakes upon them, the creatures swimming veryhigh and strong in the water.
But we understood nothing of the management of guiding such acreature, or how to bind a burthen upon them; and this last part of ourconsultation puzzled us extremely. At last I proposed a method for them,which, after some consideration, they found very convenient; and thiswas, to quarrel with some of the negro natives, take ten or twelve ofthem prisoners, and binding them as slaves, cause them to travel withus, and make them carry our baggage; which I alleged would be convenientand useful many ways as well to show us the way, as to converse withother natives for us.
This counsel was not accepted at first, but the natives soon gave themreason to approve it, and also gave them an opportunity to put it inpractice; for, as our little traffic with the natives was hitherto uponthe faith of their first kindness, we found some knavery among them atlast; for having bought some cattle of them for our toys, which, asI said, our cutler had contrived, one of our men differing with hischapman, truly they huffed him in their manner, and, keeping the thingshe had offered them for the cattle, made their fellows drive away thecattle before his face, and laugh at him. Our man crying out loud ofthis violence, and calling to some of us who were not far off, the negrohe was dealing with threw a lance at him, which came so true, that, ifhe had not with great agility jumped aside, and held up his hand alsoto turn the lance as it came, it had struck through his body; and, as itwas, it wounded him in the arm; at which the man, enraged, took up hisfuzee, and shot the negro through the heart.
The others that were near him, and all those that were with us ata distance, were so terribly frighted, first, at the flash of fire;secondly, at the noise; and thirdly, at seeing their countryman killed,that they stood like men stupid and amazed, at first, for some time; butafter they were a little recovered from their fright, one of them, at agood distance from us, set up a sudden screaming noise, which, itseems, is the noise they make when they go to fight; and all the restunderstanding what he meant, answered him, and ran together to the placewhere he was, and we not knowing what it meant, stood still, lookingupon one another like a parcel of fools.
But we were presently undeceived; for, in two or three minutes more,we heard the screaming roaring noise go on from one place to another,through all their little towns; nay, even over the creek to the otherside; and, on a sudden, we saw a naked multitude running from all partsto t
he place where the first man began it, as to a rendezvous; and, inless than an hour, I believe there was near 500 of them gotten together,armed some with bows and arrows, but most with lances, which they throwat a good distance, so nicely that they will strike a bird flying.
We had but a very little time for consultation, for the multitude wasincreasing every moment; and I verily believe, if we had stayed long,they would have been 10,000 together in a little time. We had nothingto do, therefore, but to fly to our ship or bark, where indeed we couldhave defended ourselves very well, or to advance and try what a volleyor two of small shot would do for us.
We resolved immediately upon the latter, depending upon it that the fireand terror of our shot would soon put them to flight; so we drew up allin a line, and marched boldly up to them. They stood ready to meet us,depending, I suppose, to destroy us all with their lances; but beforewe came near enough for them to throw their lances, we halted, and,standing at a good distance from one